A national police station in Malaga, in a file image. NATIONAL POLICE MÁLAGA
The National Police have arrested a 37-year-old man in Estepona (Málaga) for allegedly trying to burn his partner and their underage daughter alive. According to initial investigations, the suspect knew of the woman’s intentions to end a two-year relationship. He then doused the woman and girl with gasoline and set fire to the house they were in, but the two managed to leave the building unharmed. The judicial authority has ordered the detention of the attacker, who had numerous allegations of sexist violence.
According to investigators, after dousing them in fuel and pouring the same substance into the house, the investigator threw a cigarette butt that set them on fire, although the victims managed to escape the building unharmed and were helped from outside was made by the neighbors. and acting police officers, the state police said in a statement.
It was a call from the National Police on 091 alerting us to an incident of gender-based violence in the town of Estepona, Málaga. There, agents from the Citizen Assistance Group were assigned to locate two women soaked in gasoline outside their home.
The incident was triggered when the woman told her partner that she intended to end their relationship of two years. The attacker responded by beating the woman, then dousing her and her daughter with fuel and setting the house on fire with a cigarette.
In view of the events, the patrol arrested the man and requested the presence of the fire extinguishing services and the officers of the Family and Women’s Care Unit (UFAM) of the Estepona local police station to provide assistance to the victims specialized personnel.
The injured, who were able to leave the house before the fire hit them, were escorted by UFAM agents to a medical center to later file a report and be taken to an emergency shelter.
The accused, who had numerous records of similar incidents, was made available to the judicial authority as the suspected perpetrator of an abuse crime in the family environment. The court ordered his detention.
The method used by the attacker is reminiscent of the case of Ana Orantes, who 25 years ago denounced on Andalusian public television the 40 years of abuse she suffered at the hands of her ex-husband and who was later burned alive by him. Orantes’ story aroused a social awareness and a public debate that had not existed before. Hundreds of thousands of women saw themselves recognized in it. There was a first name for it: domestic violence. Months after the murder, in 1999, a reform of the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure was carried out, introducing criminal prosecution for ill-treatment (without reporting the victim), psychological violence as a criminal offense and ex officio restraining orders.
Telephone 016 supports victims of sexist violence, their families and their environment 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in 53 different languages. The number will not be registered on the phone bill, but the call must be deleted from the device. You can also contact them by email at [email protected] and by WhatsApp at 600 000 016. Minors can contact the ANAR Foundation at 900 20 20 10. If it is an emergency you can call 112 or the telephone numbers of the National Police (091) and the Civil Guard (062). And if you can’t call, you can use the ALERTCOPS application, from which an alarm signal with geolocation will be sent to the police.